"Call it the loophole that destroyed the world. "

[Armstead]

4. Republicans suck. That's a given.

I would totally agree with you and keep my yap shut, if that werev the only cause of these problems.

Democrats are, on balance, better. In many instances MUCH better.

But -- and this is what it has to to do with the OP -- is that far too often Democrats have aided and abetted the suckiness of the GOP and the Big Money Club. Without the explicit support of these Corporate Democrats -- and the lack of real resistance by many others -- the GOP would be just a marginalized minority, and theor corporte backers would be forced to behave themselves.

Until we acknowledge that part of the problem and push to have an actual two-party system things will only continue to get worse and worse, and the GOP will continue to be able to bamboozle many people who ought to be natural Democrats.

If that means being considered "self righteous" well, sorry about that. Better that than enabling the suck.